A Backup Not Named Tebow Leads the Jets

With Sanchez Pulled, Greg McElroy—Who?—Tosses a Touchdown to Win an Ugly Game Against the Arizona Cardinals

ENLARGE

Jets third-string quarterback Greg McElroy replaced a struggling Mark Sanchez on Sunday and led the Jets to a win, as backup Tim Tebow sat out with fractured ribs.
Associated Press

By

Mike Sielski

Updated Dec. 2, 2012 11:09 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Rex Ryan's decision to bench Mark Sanchez as the Jets' starting quarterback had already trickled its way down the coaching chain of command: from Ryan to offensive coordinator Tony Sparano, from Sparano to Sanchez.

Here the Jets were, scoreless through two and a half quarters Sunday against the hapless Arizona Cardinals, down by three points, in danger of losing the game and having their fragile playoff hopes disintegrate. Sanchez had thrown three interceptions and been thrown for three sacks, and still he wanted to hear this news from Ryan himself. He asked Ryan if Greg McElroy would indeed be replacing him. Ryan said yes. Sanchez walked away, took off his helmet, put on a baseball cap, and grabbed a clipboard.

From that terse conversation until the game's conclusion, the strangest narrative thread of a strange Jets season took its strangest turn. With an error-free if unspectacular performance, McElroy led the Jets to their only scoring drive in their ugly 7-6 victory Sunday, completing a one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jeff Cumberland on the first play of the fourth quarter. After months of conjecture that Tim Tebow might supplant Sanchez, Tebow didn't even dress for Sunday's game because of fractured ribs. Instead, Sanchez's foil in the Jets' quarterback controversy turned out to be McElroy—a third-string player who on Sunday was an active member of the roster for the first time in his two-year career.

"I didn't expect it, but it doesn't matter," said Sanchez, who completed 10 of his 21 passes Sunday for 97 yards—and a 21.4 quarterback rating. "It's the coach's call."

Ryan did not reveal who would start at quarterback in the Jets' next game, this Sunday in Jacksonville, or when he would announce his decision. "I'll let you guys know when I'm ready to," he said. That the Jets (5-7) will play a rather awful team (the Jaguars are 2-10) on the road may make it easier for Ryan to re-insert Sanchez into the lineup. The environment will be relatively pressure-free, at least compared to Sunday's. The crowd at MetLife Stadium began booing Sanchez after his first pass (which was intercepted by former Jets safety Kerry Rhodes) and gave McElroy a standing ovation when he entered the game.

"Mark is a great competitor," Ryan said. "He understood that it was my call. He's a man. Nobody wants to leave the game, but I just felt it was right for our team."

Had Ryan elected to bench Sanchez against any other opponent, the decision might have backfired or, at a minimum, been irrelevant to the game's outcome. But the Cardinals (4-8) managed just 137 yards of total offense Sunday, 40 of which came when safety Rashad Johnson ran for a first down on a fake punt, and went 0-for-15 on third down. Sanchez's wasn't even the worst display of quarterbacking in the game. Arizona rookie Ryan Lindley completed 10 of his 31 pass attempts, throwing for a mere 72 yards and showing no discernible familiarity with his own team's offensive scheme.

Compared to his two counterparts, McElroy was Unitas-like. His statistics were modest (5-for-7 for 29 yards), but he guided the Jets not only on a 10-play, 69-yard drive to take the lead, but on a 13-play, 66-yard possession that wiped out the game's final 7 minutes, 55 seconds. Three of his completions came on third down. Two went for first downs. The third was the touchdown to Cumberland, a bootleg to the right in which the quarterback has the option to either throw or run. It's a play, guard Brandon Moore said, that the Jets have rarely called this season.

"It usually works," Moore said. "Great execution by Jeff and Greg. He's a pretty confident kid, borderline cocky. But you kind of like that in a quarterback."

Upon catching McElroy's pass, Cumberland spiked the football with such force that it bounded into the stands, where a fan caught it. Wanting to preserve the memory of his first NFL touchdown pass, McElroy asked the fan for the ball, and the fan tossed it down to him.

"It's definitely going on the mantle," McElroy said. He was shoving gear into a duffel bag as he spoke, eye black still smeared on his face above a wide smile. Minutes earlier, Sanchez had been standing at the locker next to McElroy's, saying nothing, when Ryan entered the room, put his arm around Sanchez, and talked to him quietly for a while. "He was just saying to hang in there," Sanchez said, but he was not saying who would start against Jacksonville.

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